Well, here's a description:
Quote:
The physical effects of poorly executed waterboarding can be extreme pain and damage to the lungs, brain damage caused by oxygen deprivation and sometimes broken bones because of the restraints applied to the struggling victim. The psychological effects can be longlasting.
Dr. Allen Keller, the director of the Bellevue/N.Y.U. Program for Survivors of Torture, has treated "a number of people" who had been subjected to forms of near-asphyxiation, including waterboarding. An interview for The New Yorker states:
[Dr. Keller] argued that it was indeed torture. Some victims were still traumatized years later, he said. One patient couldn't take showers, and panicked when it rained. "The fear of being killed is a terrifying experience," he said.
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waterboarding )
I don't think we should be inflicting physical or psychological trauma if we can help it. I think legalizing and routinizing it is certainly a misstep. I do think it might be possible to make a coherent case for the technique, but a priori dismissal of any dissent as "pussified" is basically meaningless.